Picture it: a little white-haired church lady trying to burn dried-out palms in an aluminum pan on the top rack of her barbecue grill to make ashes for Ash Wednesday. It's windy. Ashes go flying everywhere.
"It was such a disaster I can't even begin to tell you," says Janet Sweeting, a member of Grace & Holy Trinity Cathedral in downtown Kansas City. "My husband said, 'This can't be right.' "
It wasn't. But over the last three years she has perfected the fiery, smoky, multi-stage task that scores of others around town have been busy with in these days leading up to Ash Wednesday: making ashes.
These faithful do-it-yourselfers fulfill a growing need as more churches observe Ash Wednesday, adding new twists to an old tradition.
Lisa Gutierrez
Kansas City Star